


Players' Confidence

by strauberry23



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Hogwarts AU, Quidditch, written as part of my fic giveaway on tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-30 16:09:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6431260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strauberry23/pseuds/strauberry23
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marinette, the captain of the Slytherin quidditch team, goes against Adrien Agreste, the captain of the Hufflepuff team, in the final game of the season to see who will win the Quidditch Cup. She is always amazed at how different they act around each other on the pitch rather than off of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Players' Confidence

**Author's Note:**

> this au will kill me i stg

“You ready to get _beaten_ today, Dupain-Cheng?”

Marinette rolled her eyes, turning around to watch as a young man in yellow robes all but swaggered up to her. She cocked her hip to the side and placed one of her hands on top of it, giving him an exasperated look. “You make that joke before every game and it never gets any funnier, Agreste. I’m convinced that the only reason you wanted to be a beater is so you could make that pun.”

A wide grin spread over Adrien’s handsome face, revealing perfect white teeth that Marinette made a point to look away from. “That may have been a part of it, yes.”

Marinette snorted and shook her head, trying to ignore the fact that her heart was skipping a beat due to his smile. “You’re impossible.”

“Don’t you mean impaw-sible?” Adrien said with a crooked smile.

The young woman groaned in annoyance. “I called you a cat one time _,_ okay, _one time!_ That does not give you permission to make bad cat jokes any time you want.”

“Aw,” he said with a mock-pout, “but my cat puns purrfect! Plus it helps that you always set me up for them, Ladybug.”

Marinette sighed, crossing her arms in front of her. “I still don’t understand why you call me that, I’m not even wearing red! That’s the enemy’s color,” she said while wrinkling her nose in disgust. 

“True,” Adrien conceded, “but _I’m_ your enemy today, my lady. So you better watch out, all that zipping around on your broomstick like a bug can’t save you today,” he said with a grin. 

“No, it’s _you_ who has to watch out,” she said while poking his nose with a finger. “You guys barely won the last match so I don’t think you’re ready to face a formidable opponent such as us.”

“You may have that Slytherin confidence, Dupain-Cheng, but I have the resilience of a Hufflepuff, and I think hard work trumps confidence any day.”

Marinette shrugged, giving her opponent a smirk. “Whatever you say, Agreste.” 

She turned around to leave before a hand grabbed her own, stopping her in her tracks. Adrien put his other arm behind his back and bowed, raising their clasped hands to his lips to give the back of her hand a slight kiss. Marinette swore to herself as her breath hitched, fighting to keep her blush down. I wouldn’t do to show any weakness to the enemy. 

“And by the way,” he said while leaning back up, running his thumb over her hand in a way that was entirely too intimate for players on opposing teams who were about to compete in the final game of the season. “I bet you would look good in red.” 

With that he winked, turning on his heel to head back to his teammates, letting go of her hand at the last possible moment. 

Marinette took a deep breath before hurrying over to her teammates, psyching herself up to give them a pep talk before the game, since she was their team captain. This was the final game of the year, Slytherin and Hufflepuff competing to see who would get the Quidditch Cup. Everyone thought that it would be Slytherin and Gryffindor who would compete in the final match but Hufflepuff had caught everyone by surprise when they beat Gryffindor in the game before, barely scraping past them in the final moments, and it was all due to their new team captain. The old Hufflepuff team captain had graduated the year before, so it was 6th year Adrien Agreste to take over the reins as the leader of his team. 

Before this year Hufflepuff hadn’t really been any good, only winning the rare game here and there. But with Adrien as the team captain they had been doing better and better, until they had won against Gryffindor who was debatably the best team at Hogwarts. Going up against her house’s natural enemy had already made Marinette nervous, but competing against a team that had managed to beat them? Let’s just say she had barely been getting any sleep.

But today she was confident and ready. She had worked her team to the brink of exhaustion and she knew that they were prepared and would give it their all. Marinette looked around the circle and stared each of them in the eye, giving them a slight nod to which they all nodded in return. They were ready. 

The whistle blew and the balls and brooms flew off the ground and into the air. Marinette raced toward the Quaffle, barely managing to snatch it from the air before one of the Hufflepuff chasers could get to it. She grinned, racing up into the sky toward the goal posts. She passed it to one of her teammates after a few moments, weaving past other players and Bludgers before catching the Quaffle in her hands again. She put it under her arm as she shot forward, coming up to the goal posts. She faked to the right to throw off the Hufflepuff keeper before throwing the Quaffle to the left, the ball sailing perfectly through the hole. 

Marinette could hear her house cheer louder and smiled to herself, turning her broom so she could face the rest of the pitch. She saw the Quaffle under the arm of a Hufflepuff chaser and raced forward, determined to not let them score.

She made sure to fly above Adrien on her way over, reaching out a hand to ruffle his hair as she went past, causing it to fall wildly around his head and into his eyes. 

Marinette heard him give a surprised shout behind her and she smirked to herself, her eyes already trained on the Quaffle as the next thing to get her hands on. Oh, she was gonna have a fantastic time. 

~~~

About halfway through the match she felt rather than saw a Bludger fly past her, her hair rising from the displaced air the ball produced as it flew by. She turned around and glared in the direction it had come from, eyes landing on Adrien. Her scowl deepened. 

“Sorry my lady,” he said as he flew past her, an infuriating smirk on his face and his normal perfectly-styled hair all mused from the wind, “all’s fair in love and war.”

“You want war?” she shouted after him. “I’ll give you war!”

Marinette knew he heard her by the laugh he let out, the beautiful sound filling the air around him and reaching her ears. She growled, annoyed at him for being so perfect at a time like this. She flew off, snatching the Quaffle from mid-air as it was passed between two Hufflepuff chasers, racing toward the goal and throwing it through the center loop, causing the crowd to cheer even louder. 

She’d show him war if it was the last thing she did.

~~~

Marinette glanced at the scoreboard, as if she hadn’t been keeping track of the score the entire game. She swore under her breath as she looked at the numbers, her team 30 points behind. It was too close of a game to call it and they had been playing for a good hour and a half now. Everyone was sweaty and exhausted. They were all ready to end this thing, and it showed.

Each team was making desperate moves, trying to get the upper hand. It was only luck that caused the Hufflepuff team to score 3 goals more than them, which frustrated Marinette greatly. Luck was her thing. How dare they steal it. 

She growled as she shot off, flying toward the Quaffle. Marinette and her fellow chasers flew in practiced formations, weaving the ball back and forth between them and around anyone else who got in their way. 

Her team managed to score 3 more times but the Hufflepuff team had scored again, still leaving the Slytherin team 10 points behind. 

Marinette shouted words of encouragement to her teammates whenever she could, and occasionally she could hear Adrien do the same thing for his team. She knew that they both wanted this to end soon, their tired eyes catching each other’s as they flew past. They knew that their only hope was for one of their seekers to catch the Golden Snitch.

Right on cue she saw the seekers suddenly fly toward the ground neck-in-neck. This had happened a few times during the game only to be left in disappointment, and all of the other times everyone had kept playing in case it was a fake-out or the seekers lost sight of it. But this time was different; everyone was tired and ready for the match to end so they all stopped to watch as the Hufflepuff and Slytherin seekers raced toward something that only they could see, breaths held in anticipation. 

Her house erupted into cheers and fanatic clapping as they saw the Slytherin seeker raise her hand into the air with a triumphant smile. Marinette and her team raced toward their seeker, all embracing each other and cheering in happiness. They did a victory lap around the pitch, flying over her fellow housemates’ heads and high-fiving all of the raised hands that they could reach. 

They flew back down to the ground, all of Slytherin house flooding out onto the pitch to congratulate them. Marinette stood in the middle of all the shouting and cheers, her grin splitting her face in half. She accepted all of the well-wishes and made sure to weave her way through the crowd and congratulate all of her teammates, making sure they knew how grateful she was for all of their hard work throughout the season and the exceptional work they did that day. She was so proud of her team and couldn’t wait to work with them next season for her final year at Hogwarts. 

As she turned away from her last teammate she came face to face with Adrien, who was looking down at her with a small smile on his face. 

“Congratulations, Marinette,” he said, holding out his hand in the limited space between them. “Great game.”

Marinette stared at him as she raised her hand and placed it in his, firmly shaking it. He never used her first name during a Quidditch match so it surprised her greatly that he just did.

Adrien seemed to realize what he had done because his eyes widened, and he quickly let go of her hand and rubbed the back of his head, looking down at the ground and smiling in embarrassment. Seeing this change in attitude in him was always striking to witness and she had never quite gotten used to it over the years. She knew that they acted differently on the Quidditch pitch compared to when they were off of it, their competitiveness and confidence showing up once the brooms and Quaffle came out, especially around each other. Marinette wasn’t sure why they did this but it always made the games more interesting so she hadn’t called him out on it. At least, not yet. They still had another year. 

Marinette watched as Adrien physically shook himself out of his shyness, the hand from behind his head coming down to rest on her shoulder. “Can’t wait to beat you next year, Dupain-Cheng,” he said, a smirk replacing the nervous look on his face as he winked. 

Marinette threw her head back and laughed. “We’ll see about that, Agreste.” She winked right back.

Adrien’s smirk widened into a real smile as his hand squeezed her shoulder. Marinette knew her face was flushed from the excitement of the match and the heat from being surrounded by so many people for a while, and she hoped that was enough to stop her blush from showing up. She turned her head to the side and saw her friends Alya and Nino standing off to the side, Alya animatedly talking with her hands while Nino smiled and nodded at her. She could clearly see the adoration in Nino’s eyes as he looked at her best friend. Marinette smiled to herself. 

“They would make a good couple.”

Marinette turned her head back forward and saw Adrien looking over in the directing she just was, a wistful smile on his face. 

When he didn’t hear her respond he turned back around to face her, his hand having never left her shoulder. He smiled at her, and she smiled tenderly back.

“Yeah,” she said softly, “they really would.”

They both knew she wasn’t talking about Alya and Nino anymore. 

Marinette laughed nervously, all confidence that may have been left over from the game gone. He had that kind of effect on her, and it both excited and terrified her. 

She heard Adrien laugh along with her, and she sighed when he pressed his forehead against hers, his hand coming to rest on the back of her neck. Both of their eyes closed, enjoying the moment that was just the two of them. After a minute they both leaned back at the same time, softly smiling at each other as their eyes opened. 

Suddenly someone bumped into Marinette from behind, causing her to stumble forward into Adrien. 

“Woah,” he said as he put his hands on her upper arms to steady her, “you alright?”

Marinette regained her balance and looked up at him, prepared to say that she was fine before her breath caught in her throat. Their faces were much closer to each other than she had thought. 

“Um…” she started weakly. She shook her head to try to clear it. “Yeah, yup, I’m, uh, fine, are you fine? I mean, of course you’re _fine_ but-“

Adrien’s chuckle interrupted her. “Yes I’m fine, Marinette, thank you for asking.”

Marinette smiled weakly in response, opening her mouth to respond before a commotion at the side of the pitch caught her attention. She watched as the group of students came up to them with the Quidditch Cup. Her smile turned strong and proud, and she turned to Adrien to regretfully tell him that she had to leave.

“Go,” he said before she could say anything. He smiled down at her and squeezed her arms. “You deserve it, my lady.”

Before she lost her nerve she leaned up and kissed his cheek in thanks before running off to her teammates, who handed her the Cup and hoisted her up in the air to sit on their shoulders. She used one hand to keep her balance but lifted the cup into the air with the other, causing her teammates and the entire house to erupt into cheers once again. She yelled along with them, twisting herself so she could see everybody that was gathered around her. 

At one point her eyes caught Adriens. He was smiling widely at her, looking on in pride and a slight blush to his cheeks. He gave her a thumbs up.

Marinette couldn’t help but cheer louder after that.


End file.
